There's been a winter's worth of talk about Peter Sagan and Milan-San Remo, but as the day draws close, we bring you one of the only voices that matters—Sagan's own. Watch for his take on La Primavera in the first of a new series, I Am Specialized.

I AM SPECIALIZED

PETER SAGAN

Peter Sagan is a seeming contradiction: he's one of the sport's hardest workers—attacking, sprinting, winning, or coming agonizingly close from March through to September—yet he approaches racing with a healthy dose of irreverence, a playful attitude to his profession that's not shared by many others in the peloton.

Much to the annoyance of some of cycling's po-faced practitioners, Sagan's attitude and pure talent have made him a fan favorite. His success is a call to arms for riders who don't see hard work and fun as polar opposites.

A lot of people tell me, 'you can do everything.' But it's not true.

Peter Sagan

And this is where Milan-San Remo comes in. It's representative of racing's Old Guard, a 293km slog that doesn't wear its sense of history lightly. To win La Primavera in the Rainbow Jersey would be a sign that the World Championships were by no means a fluke, and proof that Sagan's successes don't come despite his carefree personality, but perhaps, because of it. Regardless, it would certainly be the first recorded instance of a Danny Zuko impersonator winning a Monument, which is reason enough to cheer him on.

The signs are good for Sagan, not least because the effort that he'll need to produce in San Remo is exactly what he did at the World Championships: a combination of raw power, fearless handling, and tactically savvy timing. And if he doesn't win? No matter, he's only 26.

PETER SAGANTinkoff-Saxo

"Milan-San Remo is a very important race… it's not just the roads, the tactics, the style of the race."